Daniel Intern. Corp. v. Occupational Safety and Health Review Com'n, 80-1357

• Decision Date: 05 August 1981
• Docket Number: No. 80-1357,80-1357
• Citation: 656 F.2d 925
• Parties: 9 O.S.H. Cas.(BNA) 2102, 1981 O.S.H.D. (CCH) P 25,595 DANIEL INTERNATIONAL CORPORATION, Petitioner, v. OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH REVIEW COMMISSION and The Secretary of Labor, Respondents.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit

Page 925

656 F.2d 925

9 O.S.H. Cas.(BNA) 2102, 1981 O.S.H.D. (CCH) P 25,595

DANIEL INTERNATIONAL CORPORATION, Petitioner, v. OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH REVIEW COMMISSION and The Secretary of Labor, Respondents.

No. 80-1357.

United States Court of Appeals Fourth Circuit.

Argued Feb. 3, 1981.

Decided Aug. 5, 1981.

Carl B. Carruth, Greenville, S.C. (George A. Harper, Thompson, Mann & Hutson, Greensville, S.C., on brief) for petitioner.

Benjamin W. Mintz, Associate Sol. for Occupational Safety and Health, Washington, D. C. (Clarin A. Clauss, Sol. of Labor, Allen H. Feldman, Counsel for Appellate Litigation, Charles I. Hadden, Asst. Counsel for Appellate Litigation, Thomas L. Holzman, U.S. Dept. of Labor, Tedrick A. Housh, Jr., Regional Sol., Washington, D. C., on brief), for respondents.

Before BRYAN, Senior Circuit Judge, and BUTZNER and MURNAGHAN, Circuit Judges.

MURNAGHAN, Circuit Judge:

During late August and early September, 1977, two compliance officers for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration inspected a construction site in Iatan, Missouri, where Daniel International Corp. was constructing an electrical generating power station. As a result of the inspection, the Secretary of Labor issued four citations against Daniel, alleging violations of OSHA construction safety standards, with a proposed penalty of $13,760. ¹ After conducting an evidentiary hearing, an administrative law judge affirmed some of the citations, vacated others, and reduced the penalty to $1,195.

Daniel now appeals several findings of the administrative law judge. ² First, Daniel argues that all findings of violations against it must be dismissed, because the construction safety standards, published at 29 C.F.R. Part 1926, were invalidly promulgated. Second, Daniel argues that the finding that it violated the temporary flooring standard, 29 C.F.R. 1926.750(b)(2)(i) must be dismissed, because the standard was improperly amended. Daniel also argues that, even if the standard was properly amended, there was insufficient evidence in the record to support a finding that Daniel violated the standard. Third, Daniel argues that there was insufficient evidence in the record to support a finding that Daniel violated the safety training standard, 29 C.F.R. 1926.21(b)(2).

1. Promulgation of 29 C.F.R. Part 1926.

The Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 authorized the Secretary of Labor to promulgate safety and health standards in either of two ways. Section 6(b) of the Act, 29 U.S.C. § 655(b), authorized the Secretary to promulgate standards through general notice and comment rulemaking, designed to extend due process safeguards to persons potentially affected by the standards. Section 6(a) of the Act, 29 U.S.C. § 655(a), however, provided an interim shortcut to the notice and comment procedures of § 6(b): during the first two years following OSHA's effective date, the Secretary could adopt as an OSHA standard any national consensus standard ³ or any Federal standard promulgated under another statute and in effect on OSHA's effective date. ⁴ OSHA's legislative history indicates that Congress provided the summary procedure because of the severity of the industrial safety problem; the purpose of the procedure was to enable the Secretary of Labor to establish as rapidly as possible national occupational health and safety standards with which industry was familiar. Because national consensus standards or established Federal standards would have been promulgated through procedures which gave the holders of diverse views an opportunity to comment, Congress concluded that it would be appropriate to permit the Secretary to adopt such standards without regard to the formal requirements of the Administrative Procedure Act. See S.Rep.No.91-1282, 91st Cong., 2d Sess. 6, reprinted in (1970) U.S. Code Cong. & Ad. News 5177, 5182.

The standards challenged here, published at 29 C.F.R. Part 1926, originally were promulgated under § 107 of the Construction Safety Act, 40 U.S.C. § 333 (1969), and adopted as OSHA standards through the summary procedures of § 6(a). Daniel argues that the adoption of the standards as OSHA standards was invalid, because the original promulgation of the standards under the Construction Safety Act failed to comply with the procedural requirements of § 553 of the Administrative Procedure Act. ⁵

Section 553 requires (1) general notice of proposed rulemaking, 5 U.S.C. § 553(b); (2) an opportunity for interested persons to comment on the proposed rule, 5 U.S.C. § 553(c); and (3) publication of the proposed rule in the Federal Register 30 days before its effective date, 5 U.S.C. § 553(d). Notice of proposed promulgation of Construction Safety Act standards was published in the Federal Register on February 1, 1971, with a list of the proposed standards. Interested persons were invited to submit written views, data, and arguments. See 36 Fed.Reg. 1802 (1971). Interested persons also were given an opportunity to comment at six regional hearings. Final publication of the adopted standards in the Federal Register occurred on April 17, 1971. The publication stated, however, that the standards would become effective on April 27, 1971, only ten days after publication, instead of on a date 30 days after publication, as required by § 553. See 36 Fed.Reg. 7430 (1971). The shortened publication period enabled the standards to take effect one day before the effective date of OSHA, April 28, 1971.

The explanation accompanying final publication of the standards stated that acceleration of the effective date was justified either by the "good cause" or the "public contracts" exceptions to § 553 rulemaking procedures. See 5 U.S.C. §§ 553(a)(2), (d)(3). ⁶ The essence of Daniel's challenge is that neither the "good cause" nor the "public contracts" exception justified acceleration of the effective date. Daniel argues that the standards should not have become effective until 30 days after publication in the Federal Register. The standards, the argument continues, were not properly in effect on the date OSHA took effect, and therefore could not be adopted as OSHA standards through the summary procedures of § 6(a). The Secretary was required to promulgate the standards through the more formal procedures of § 6(b). Because the Secretary has never complied with § 6(b), the argument concludes, the standards are void and the citations issued against Daniel must be dismissed.

As a preliminary matter, the court must consider whether Daniel can challenge promulgation of the standards in an enforcement proceeding. Relying on National Industrial Constructors v. OSHRC, 583 F.2d 1048 (8th Cir. 1978), the Secretary argues that a party cannot raise procedural challenges to OSHA standards in an enforcement proceeding.

The Eighth Circuit held in NIC that all procedural challenges to OSHA standards must be brought in proceedings within 60 days after the effective date of the standard. The court reached this conclusion through an interpretation of § 6(f) of OSHA, 29 U.S.C. § 655(f). Section 6(f) states in part:

Any person who may be adversely affected by a standard issued under this section may at any time prior to the sixtieth day after such standard is promulgated file a petition challenging the validity of such standard with the United States court of appeals for the circuit wherein such person resides or has his principal place of business, for a judicial review of such standard.

By its terms, § 6(f) appears to restrict all judicial review of OSHA standards both substantive and procedural to pre-enforcement proceedings, or at least to a proceeding no more than 60 days delayed beyond the date of promulgation of the standard. ⁷

Quoting from OSHA's legislative history, however, the court in NIC noted that Congress could not have intended preenforcement proceedings to provide the exclusive forum for judicial review: "While (Section 6(f)) would be the exclusive method for obtaining pre-enforcement judicial review of a standard, the provision does not foreclose an employer from challenging the validity of a standard during an enforcement proceeding." 583 F.2d at 1052, quoting S.Rep.No.91-1282, 91st Cong., 2d Sess. reprinted in (1970) U.S.Code Cong. & Ad.News 5177, 5184.

The court concluded that, at a minimum, Congress must have intended that substantive challenges, which the court defined as claims that a standard is arbitrary or unreasonable, could be raised in enforcement proceedings. The court noted that the economic or technical unreasonableness of a standard may become discernible only after an employer has made a good faith effort to comply, long after the standard takes effect.

The court found, however, that the same considerations did not apply to procedural challenges. The court said that an argument that the Secretary failed to comply with the procedural requirements of the APA need not await the test of time, would be immediately discernible and can and should be raised within 60 days of promulgation. Further, the "agency's interest in finality, coupled with the burden of continuous procedural challenges raised whenever an agency attempts to enforce a regulation, dictates against providing a perpetual forum in which the Secretary's procedural irregularities may be raised. Were there no limitation upon the time within which procedural attacks could be made, the resulting uncertainty might inhibit employers, otherwise able and willing, from complying with a regulation." 583 F.2d at 1052. Therefore, the court held that procedural challenges must be raised in a proceeding pursuant to § 6(f) initiated within 60 days of promulgation.

Although the analysis of § 6(f) in NIC has appeal, both the Ninth Circuit and the Fifth Circuit subsequently have rejected it. In Marshall v. Union Oil Co., 616 F.2d 1113 (9th Cir. 1980), and in Deering Milliken, Inc. v. OSHRC, 630 F.2d 1094 (5th Cir. 1980), both courts held that a petitioner may...